Have finally got a chance to upload photos of my rats and mice at the Carbon Black exhibition. Most works have appeared in previously in this blog however it was good to see them in a new space and they seemed to sit well amongst works exploring gritty industrial urbanism. This show finished a few weeks ago but the gallery focuses on interesting work by emerging artists and is worth a visit.

The prehistoric hero of the river takes on the mythical beast of the sky in a spell-binding, nail-biting bout of fire and water.

These scaly reptiles are both threatening and tamed. In the guise of innocent pull-along toys, swinging pendulums and flying mobiles there is an air of menace. With the glint of evil, a sudden jump and snap, someone could lose an arm.

The exhibition is on June 15 – July 2, 2011 at Red Gallery North Fitzroy. Opening drinks Wed 15th June, from 6 – 8pm.

Last week of the exhibition. Closes around 4pm on Saturday 9th October. Thought I’d try and get a few more images on-line. Most of these are happy snaps I have taken but a few of the better ones (like the lucky cats and the itty bitty kitty machine) are by my excellent photographer friend Erica Lauthier. I have taken a few movies of the pieces in motion but need to change format etc before I can post them up. Will try and do this early next week.

I like these winged mice sprawled on their backs. I would leave them like this but it seems a bit wrong given that you can’t see the tops of the wings or make them fly in this position. Think I will make some clock-work rats based on these guys. Bigger, though, and all filled cogs and wheels and stringy bits of guts that work and squirm when you turn a key.